Back in 2008 David O. Russell shot a film called Nailed, scripted by Al Gore’s daughter Kristen Gore. It was a political satire in which Jessica Biel played a waitress who is shot in the head with a nail gun, leading to crazy sexual urges and a trip to Washington to lobby for health care and breaks for people with unusual disabilities. The film had shaky financing and was shut down several times. A key scene was never shot, and the movie sat, unfinished, ever since.

Fast-forward to now. David O. Russell has long since withdrawn from the project, which is now credited to director Stephen Greene (who?) and has been re-edited by producers, shown at test screenings to rather poor results, and ultimately retitled twice. NailedbecamePolitics in Love (barf) and is now called Accidental Love (double-barf). A release is evidently in the cards for February, and you can see the Nailed trailer — er, the Accidental Love trailer — after the break. Read More »

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Way back around 2008 or so, David O. Russell shot most of a political satire called Nailed. The reason we’ve never seen it is that he eventually abandoned it in 2010, after many stops and starts and financial struggles. But every so often, we get word that someone, somewhere might still try to put it out. And as today, a real release seems closer than ever.

U.K. distributor Arrow Films has scooped up Nailed, now called Politics of Love, with intentions of releasing it in 2015. Does that mean it might eventually make its way to our shores as well? Hit the jump for more details on the Nailed release, including the first official synopsis.

David O. Russell and Jennifer Lawrence will dive back into prestige pic season together next year. Fox has just set Russell’s Joy, a biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, for a Christmas 2015 release. Get all the latest details on the movie after the jump.

Jennifer Lawrence “singing” in American Hustle was one of the film’s best moments. Whether you loved the film or hated it, there’s simply no denying Lawrence lip-synching Live and Let Die by Wings was amazing. Turns out, that wasn’t the only song director David O. Russell got the Oscar-winning actress to lip-synch while cleaning her apartment.

In this American Hustle deleted scene, Lawrence’s character takes on Santana’s Evil Ways. You’ll might once again be surprised that the actress didn’t win her second Oscar in a row. Read More »

Seth Grahame-Smith‘s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was once such a hot property, bidding for the movie rights began before the book even hit shelves. But it’s spent the past five years in development hell, shuffling from one high-profile movie star and director to another.

The last we heard of it was in May, when the David O. Russell-penned script landed with Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) and Lily Collins (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones). Progress has been pretty quiet since then, but the project is apparently far from dead — in fact, it’s nearing the start of production. More details after the jump.

The last two times that David O. Russell teamed up with Jennifer Lawrence, it went really well for both of them. They each got Oscar nominations for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle (with Lawrence actually winning for the former), and both films fared well at the box office. So it shouldn’t come as much of a shock that he’s eager to team with her again.

Russell is reportedly in talks with Fox 2000 to rewrite and possibly direct an untitled biopic about Joy Mangano, the inventor of the Miracle Mop, and wants Lawrence to star as the lead. If she does sign on, let’s just hope she does better with Mangano’s Long Island accent than she did with Rosalyn Rosenfeld’s. Get plot details and more after the jump.

As American Hustle tears through the movie awards circuit, director David O. Russell has his sights set on another medium. ABC has just given a straight-to-series order for a new drama series from Russell, about the goings-on at a country club. Russell co-wrote the story and will executive produce alongside Carl Beverly and Sarah Timberman (Justified, Elementary). More details after the jump.

In 2013, both Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway took the the Oscar stage to accept acting awards — Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook, Hathaway for Les Misérables. But had things gone a bit differently several months earlier, it could have been Hathaway grabbing the prize for her charming, sexy turn in a David O. Russell movie.

Producer Harvey Weinstein revealed recently that Hathaway had actually been the original choice to star in Russell’s movie — opposite Mark Wahlberg, back before Bradley Cooper was confirmed. However, Hathaway and Wahlberg dropped out, Lawrence and Cooper replaced them, and the rest is cinema history. Hit the jump to find out why Hathaway left.

Who will be nominated for the Best Director Oscar this year? We’ve got a pretty good idea now that the nominations for the Directors Guild of America’s own awards have been handed down. Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity), David O. Russell (American Hustle), Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) and Paul Greengrass (Captain Philips) have been honored with nominations for the 66th DGA award. Three of those (McQueen, Cuaron, Greengrass) are first-time DGA nominations.

Historically, this nomination set is a very good predictor of where the Oscars will go, but last year was a bit of a tradition breaker, as only two of the five DGA nominees got Oscar nominations, and the DGA winner, Ben Affleck, was not among them. (Ang Lee won the Oscar.)

Meanwhile, this is another major guild that has looked past Joel and Ethan Coen and Inside Llewyn Davis; Spike Jonze is another director of significant achievement in 2013 who didn’t get a nomination.

The full list of feature directorial nominations is below, with accompanying notes from the DGA. Read More »